Helen King Hastings Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0373

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The collection includes a series of letters written by Hastings to her parents and her son, John, from 1947 to 1949. The letters provide additional details of her life experiences. There are also letters regarding her collaboration with Jean Muir and the letters often shed light on people and events chronicled in the book. The collection contains drafts and fragments of her book. Also included is a brief article entitled "The Mound Builders of Florida" which describes Native American artifacts found at Sliver Glen Springs that the author, presumably Hastings, ascribes to a lost race of pre-Indian giants.

Dates

Creation: 1947-1959

Creator

Hastings, Helen King, 1902-1990. (Person)

Access

The collection is open for research.

Biographical/Historical Note

Helen King Hastings was a native of Michigan whose family moved to central Florida in the 1910s. Her husband, LaRue Vance Hastings, was a cattleman with a ranch near Fort McCoy. When her husband died, she continued to manage the ranch while also working as a secretary in Ocala. She began to write about her life in Florida for outdoor magazines before she embarked on an autobiography. The autobiography, entitled "Florida Flatwoods," was rejected for publication. Her literary agent then put her in touch with a magazine writer from San Francisco, Jean Muir, who touched up the manuscript and suggested the flashier title, A Little Widow is a Dangerous Thing. The revised manuscript was published under that name by G. P. Putnam in 1959.

Extent

.5 Linear feet (1 Box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Correspondence and publication manuscripts of Helen King Hastings, central Florida rancher and author of A Little Widow is a Dangerous Thing.

Physical Location

University of Florida Smathers Library Building

Acquisition Information

The bulk of this collection was given to Florida historian Samuel Proctor in the 1980s and later transferred to the George A. Smathers Libraries. Two folders containing correspondence and the mound builders article were previously housed in the Florida Miscellaneous Manuscript Collections.